It’s a process perfected over thousands of years, first to makeweapons, then to build, and nowthe Fanshawe Sculpture andMould-Making class is using the process of smelting bronze to makeart. The students had a uniqueopportunity this spring when their work was displayed at the LondonARTS Project, a gallery located at203 Dundas St. downtown.Kristen Poisson is the courseinstructor and an artist himself. Ashe showed off the various pieceshis students created, he pointed outa piece that he personally workedon and started describing thechanges he’d like to make on theseemingly complete piece. “That’swhat I tell the students – bring in a personal piece.” The process can be time-consuming but with an endresult of turning what may have been a tacky keepsake into a pieceof art. I asked why he chooses tocreate art using something like bronze and Poisson had a ready-made answer borne of years spenthoning his craft: “(Bronze) is a lus-cious material because it’s subtle,it’s also supple, you can make any-thing with it, you can even carveit.” The passion behind his bronzework was obvious as Poissonspoke about his favourite artist,Marcel Duchamp, who pushed the boundaries of what was consideredart.The course is attended by a moremature demographic of collegestudents and includes many profes-sionals from the community whowork with metal in other capaci-ties. Shortly after our introduction,Poisson commented that he“want(s) to get a foundry here inLondon through FanshaweCollege. I have a growing amountof people that are interested in this process and we want to do more but we don’t have the facility.” Thestudents do all of their casting in afacility in Windsor for lack of alocal foundry.The event showcased two class-es, one from each semester of thecourse that Poisson teaches, and both groups “were extremely dedi-cated and devoted to the process,they worked hard.” Some studentscame in with advanced knowledgealready while others were com- plete novices. The work on displaywas stunning and Poisson said hehopes to be back again next year to build on this success and promotethe course further.

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Volume 45 Issue No. 1 Summer, 2012 www.fsu.ca/interrobang/

CREDIT: AGATA LESNIK

The deep bronze, green and blue tones in these pieces were were achieved by treating the bronze with differentchemicals, no paint is used.

CREDIT: METRONEWS.CA

Co-chair of the HBT group Daniel Pugh and London Police Services ChiefBrad Duncan at a press conference announcing the launch of the newHBT website.

VICTOR DE JONG

INTERROBANG

Local police are crediting adecrease in homophobic hatecrimes to better education and pre-vention plans. London police have been working with theHomophobia-Biphobia-Transphobia Working Group(HBT) to create an anti-homopho- bia campaign as well as an updatedversion of the old HBT website(hbtlondon.ca). The projectreceived a $47,000 grant from thefederal government.The website, aimed at 14 to 25year olds, will be used to helpinform people about the nature of homophobic hate crimes. It willalso serve as an online tool for peo- ple to report hate crimes and dis-crimination against the LGBT2Qcommunity.Daniel Pugh, co-chair of theHBT group, said, “There is still alot of fear, shame and stigma thatmakes it difficult for victims tocome forward, and many remainsilent.” For those who fear further harassment or embarrassment, thewebsite will allow its users toreport in an anonymous manner.Despite allowing users to remainanonymous, the website will stillserve as a great tool to lower thenumber of hate crimes. The report-ing tool will help police know howmany hate crimes are being com-mitted and who they are beingdirected towards. “Hate crimes aredifficult for police to stop if they’renot reported,” said diversity officer Sgt. Marcel Marcellin.From 2008 to 2011 the overalloccurrence of hate crimes inLondon declined from 44 to 25.The number of hate crimes againstthe LGBT2Q community declinedfrom 13 to four.Despite positive statistics, Pughsaid ge still believes that the lack of reporting of hate crimes remains a problem. “Hate crimes continue toexist and happen in all shapes andforms, from the more subtle com-ments to actual physical violence.”Pugh said he hopes the website’sreporting tool and the anti-homo- phobia curriculum will have a pos-itive effect not only on theLGBT2Q community but on theLondon community as a whole.

BROOKE FOSTER

INTERROBANG

The hottest course at Fanshawe: Around 2,000°F

London police showing their colours bysupporting the LGBT2Q community

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Volume 45 Issue No. 1 Summer, 2012 www.fsu.ca/interrobang/

The Brighton to London Eco-Run crossed the final checkpoint atFanshawe College on May 10 atthe Centre for AppliedTransportation Technologies(CATT) building. The cross-Ontario trek included stops at theUniversity of Ontario Institute of Technology, Centennial Collegeand McMaster University.Powered by the AutomobileJournalists Association of Canada(AJAC), Schneider Electric, theCanadian Automobile Association(CAA) and Natural ResourcesCanada, the 350-kilometre cam- paign showed Ontario the impor-tance of environmentally friendlydriving. About 20 cars dubbed“fuel-efficient” by AJAC, such asthe Nissan Leaf and PorschePanamera Hybrid, were showcasedfor viewing.Rob Gorrie, Fanshawe’s chair of Transportation Technology, saidthe Eco-Run benefits Fanshawe as“it’s good exposure for the stu-dents to see … what CAA is doingand also the AutomobileJournalists Association (of Canada) is doing as far as educat-ing the public and how the studentsfit into that equation. And thesestudents will be graduating andworking on these vehicles with thistechnology in not too long a time.”The year-old Centre for AppliedTransportation Technologies,which received $15.9 million ingrants from the government, ishome to a number of automotive,aviation and motive power pro-grams. The 148,000 square-foot building also features a green roof.AJAC president Clare Dear was present, and he explained theimportance of fuel-efficiency incars and what people can do toimprove their vehicles’ gas emis-sions. He noted that althoughnewer cars are built to be moreeconomical, there are ways that people can improve the efficiencyof a current vehicle. “By simplychanging your driving habits, whata dramatic increase it made in fuelefficiency,” Dear stated.“Smoothness; keeping a steadyspeed as opposed to speeding upand then having to slow down …staying the speed limit, which noone does, but it makes a huge dif-ference.”Dear also stressed the impor-tance of proper vehicle mainte-nance. “If you (have) dirty air fil-ters,” he said, “and things thatimpact the efficiency of the vehi-cle, people tend to let it go. Tire pressure (has a) huge impact;everybody can keep an eye on their tire pressure … These are thingsthat you can do regardless whether you’ve got an old car or new car.”Dear added that because fuelefficiency is becoming increasing-ly important to people, car manu-facturers are meeting demandswith excellent “green” technology.“Things that are just coming innow like direct fuel injection; get-ting into the turbo charger aspectof it, where you can get V8 per-formance out of a four-cylinder simply by adding a turbo charger and some other tweaks to it, thosesorts of things that even five yearsago we weren’t really doing.”But private industry isn’t theonly one trying to help save theenvironment. Politicians were present at the press conference andexplained the role the governmentis taking to educate the public. EdHolder, MP of London West, isalso a member of the Committee of Transport and Infrastructure, andhe introduced the government’slatest plan to educate the public onfuel efficiency: a new version of the Auto$mart Driver’s EducationKit, which includes a studentworkbook, video and CD-ROM.Auto$mart is a program used bydriving instructors all acrossCanada that teaches Canadiansabout safe, fuel-efficient driving practices to help decrease fuelcosts and greenhouse gas emis-sions.

With recent hospital bed cutsand supposed longer wait times,it’s no surprise that advocacygroups like Ontario HealthCoalition are calling foul on theOntario government’s recent cutsto the heath care system budget.The OHC is against provincialhealth care budget cuts and isadvocating for improved healthcare.Journalist Philip McLeod grewup during the infancy of theCanadian public health care sys-tem. There was almost no publichealth care when he was a child, but by the time he was having kidsof his own, health care was univer-sal. He is now asking if health carehas come full circle. Has it becometoo social, commercial and, mostimportantly, too expensive?“Suddenly a system that hassaved so many lives, both medical-ly and financially, is under attack,”McLeod said at a mid-May townhall meeting in London hosted byOntario Health Coalition on healthcare cuts in the provincial budget.Ontario ranks eighth out of the10 provinces for health care spend-ing, yet the 2012 provincial budgetsuggests major funding cuts in thehealth care system.On March 27, the provincial budget was released, and with itcame cuts adding up to $17.7 bil-lion over the next three years. A lotof these cuts can be found inOntario’s health care system.Spending increases have beencapped at 2.1 per cent, which isway down from the 6.1 per centannual increases since 2003. While Natalie Mehra, director of OntarioHealth Coalition, said she believesthat doctors’ salaries are out of control, salaries and overall hospi-tal operating costs have beenfrozen. These freezes have forcedsimple, routine procedures to shiftfrom hospital care to communityclinics and family doctors.“We are in a situation wherehospital spending in Ontario has been declining ever since I canremember,” said Mehra. She talkedabout the province’s plan to move people from hospitals to communi-ty-based care. Even with a four per cent increase in funding for com-munity-based health care, Mehrawarned that there is still too littlemoney and manpower in the com-munity-based system to accommo-datethe shift. “The truth is thathome care funding has been declin-ing as a share of health care spend-ing for the last decade, as well.”The OHC is looking to increasethe level of care provided by theMinistry of Health. A raise intaxes, educational programs andoverall awareness are ideas thecoalition proposed to stop the budget cuts.On the other hand, provincialhealth minister Deb Matthews hasstressed in the past that health carefunding has not been cut but hasseen a 2.1 per cent increase. Andwhile that is still lower than previ-ous annual increases, it still meansthere is money being put into thehealth system.“The Ontario Health Coalition isa coalition of unions. They have along history of being highly criticalof the health care system,”Matthews said. “I agree with theOntario Health Coalition thatthere’s more to be done, but we’retaking all the right steps to ensurethe highest degree of patient safety possible. Is there more to do? Yes.But have we come a long way?Absolutely.”The OHC is spreading its mes-sage to 15 of Ontario’s large citiesin May and June. The coalitionwill visit another 20 smaller townsand communities after its larger scale meetings are finished in mid-June.